Byzantine Catholic head dies in Pa.

Byzantine Catholic head dies in Pa.

pittsburgh

Basil Myron Schott, the Byzantine archbishop of Pittsburgh and head of Byzantine Catholics in America, has died.

Schott was 70 when he died Thursday at UPMC Passavant hospital near Pittsburgh after a seven-month battle with cancer.

As head of the Arche- parchy of Pittsburgh, Schott also served as Metropolitan — or head — of the church in the United States.

His funeral will be Wednesday at St. John the Baptist Cathedral in Mulhall, a Pittsburgh suburb.

Limits continue on gays’ giving blood

WASHINGTON

A high-level federal public-health committee declined Friday to recommend a change in restrictions on blood donations by gay men but proposed research that eventually could enable some currently barred men to give blood.

In voting 9-6 against making any immediate changes, committee members cited what they said was a tiny but still unacceptable increased risk of contamination of the blood supply if current standards are changed.

The restriction on gay men, imposed in 1983 in response to the HIV-AIDS crisis, bans any man who has had sex with another man even once since 1977 from ever giving blood.

Cruise worker faces burglary charges

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla.

Bethsaida Sandoval didn’t just send people off on luxury cruises. She burglarized their homes as well, authorities said Friday.

The Royal Caribbean Cruises employee was arrested Thursday in the burglaries of homes of 20 South Florida customers who were away on cruises.

Palm Beach County deputy sheriffs arrested Sandoval, 38, on 20 counts of burglary and one count of racketeering, records show.

Her husband, John Lopez, also 38, faces the same charges.

Pope begs mercy from abuse victims

VATICAN CITY

Addressing the clerical-abuse scandal from the heart of the Roman Catholic Church, Pope Benedict XVI begged forgiveness Friday from victims and promised at a Mass to “do everything possible” to protect children.

Though symbolic, Benedict’s pledge failed to satisfy victims groups who said promises were useless without a clear-cut action plan to root out pedophile priests, expose the bishops who protected them and change the Vatican policies and culture that allowed abuse to continue.

1,000 NYC students march in protest

NEW YORK

About 1,000 New York City high school students chanted “This is what democracy looks like!” and waved homemade signs and banners Friday as they marched across the Brooklyn Bridge to protest a plan to eliminate their free transit passes.

More than 500,000 city students receive free or reduced-fare MetroCards to get to and from school.

The transportation agency has proposed ending the free rides as part of its effort to close an $800 million budget gap.

Chavez targets alcohol, smoking

CARACAS, Venezuela

President Hugo Chavez says he wants Venezuelans to stop drinking so much alcohol, and he has ordered the military to crack down on businesses selling beer on the streets or after legal hours.

Chavez said his government is considering raising taxes on alcohol and cigarettes. Venezuelans’ taste for beer and Scotch whisky is an irritation to the leftist president, and he raised liquor and cigarette taxes three years ago — to little effect.

Combined dispatches